Journeys›Photograph

Spring Family Ski Day at Squaw Valley

·Placer County, California·#tahoe#family#skiing#spring#mountains
A smiling child and adult in ski gear on a ski lift with a snowy mountain background.

Family ski day at Squaw, all three of us, late enough in April that half the mountain was skiing in t-shirts. The trees were still loaded from whatever came through this week — full winter snow on the branches, corduroy underneath, and sun the whole time. That combination doesn't happen often and the crowds knew it; the lift line at the bottom stretched well past the corral.

Our daughter rode up with me most of the morning, fleece over her tank top for the chair, goggles up because she didn't need them. Her mom skied in a t-shirt with her jacket tied around her waist and never put it back on. We stopped for a photo on one of the groomers off to the side, snow piled on the pines behind us like it was January.

The old KT-22 side of the valley looked stacked from the lift. Sixty-seven years since this place opened and it can still hand you a day like this in the back half of April.

A smiling child and adult on a ski lift, wearing helmets and goggles, with snowy mountains and trees in the background.A smiling child and a person on a ski lift, with snowy mountains and pine trees under a clear blue sky.A snowy mountain ski resort with a chairlift carrying people and a long line of skiers at the base.Two people in ski gear stand on a snowy mountain with pine trees and a clear blue sky in the background.Two people in ski gear stand on a groomed snowy slope with snow-covered pine trees in the background.An adult and a child wearing ski gear stand on groomed snow with snow-covered trees in the background.A man, a woman, and a child in helmets and sunglasses smile for a selfie on a snowy mountain with trees.Three people wearing ski helmets and sunglasses stand smiling in a snowy forest with pine trees.

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